upposition on Judith's part.

"Oh, she'll probably find it again one of these days, after everyone's
forgotten about it and gone on to some other great piece of news,"
Judith unfeelingly asserted. "You see how sympathetic I am."

"I see. I also see the clock. It's time I changed these riding togs for
a dress. I'll barely have time before the dinner gong sounds."

Jane rose from the chair she had briefly occupied while listening to
Judith, and began hurriedly to remove her riding habit.

Quickly rearranging her thick, curling hair, she dived into the closet
that held her own and Judith's dresses. Selecting a fur-trimmed frock of
dark green broadcloth, she hastily got into it.

As she hooked it a little smile played about her lips. The news of
Marian's loss already forgotten, Jane was again thinking of the pleasant
little scene enacted in the boarding stable, where Firefly and Midnight
now stood side by side.

"You must go down to the stable with us to-morrow and look Midnight
over, Judy," she suddenly remarked, then went on with an enthusiastic
description of Dorothy's new treasure.

* * * * *

While she thus dwelt at length upon Midnight's good points, in a room
not far distant two girls were conducting a most confidential session.

"How long do you think we ought to wait before--well, you know?" Marian
Seaton was asking.

"Oh, about three weeks, I should say," lazily returned Maizie Gilbert.
"We'll have to go slowly. It will take three or four months to do the
thing properly. If we rushed it, it wouldn't be half as effective as to
take our time. What about Elsie?"

"We'll tell her about the dress business, but no more than that. She
mustn't know a word about the rest. She has a frightful temper, you
know. If she happened to get good and mad at me, she'd tell everything
she knew to the very first person she ran across. She'll be properly
shocked when she hears about the dress. We'll tell it to her as a great
secret," planned Marian. "I won't say anything outright about the ring.
I'll leave it to her to draw her own conclusions. She's rabid about Judy
Stearns. It seems she has heard that Judy nicknamed her the 'ignoble
Noble.'"

"That's a funny one!"

Maizie appeared to derive signal enjoyment from this revelation.

"I fail to see anything funny about it." Marian stiffened perceptibly.
"Please remember, Maiz, that Elsie is _my_ cousin."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten it. That's